February 21, 2019
From The Philippine Star
MANILA, Philippines — Prime Orion Philippines Inc. (POPI), the logistics subsidiary of Ayala Land Inc. (ALI) will be renamed Ayalaland Logistics Holdings Corp.
POPI’s board of directors approved the name change during its board meeting yesterday. The proposal will then be presented to POPI stockholders for approval during the annual stockholders meeting on April 12, POPI said.
The move to change its name is consistent with ALI’s vision to be the country’s leading real estate logistic and industrial estate developer.
In 2015, ALI acquired an initial 51.36 percent interest in POPI, the operator of the iconic Tutuban mall. It then raised its stake in POPI to 63.9 percent from 54.91 percent.
As an ALI subsidiary, POPI aims to become a prime builder of industrial parks and warehouse facilities. POPI allowed the entry of ALI, saying it would benefit from ALI’s expertise and optimize the development of its property assets, especially the Tutuban Center.
The popular Tutuban Center is a retail complex in the shopping district of Divisoria in Tondo, Manila, with gross leasable area of about 60,000 square meters, offering various concepts from wholesale and bargain stalls, to regular retail and food outlets.
It sits on a 20-hectare property and will be the location of the North South railway project transfer station, which will interconnect with the LRT 2 West Station.
Toward its goal of becoming a prime builder of real estate logistics, POPI earmarked P1 billion for the construction of a factory building within the 11-hectare Laguna Technopark.
The factory will generate over 60,000 sqm of GLA, bringing POPI’s real estate logistics total GLA to 200,000 sqm by October 2020.
ALI, through its different businesses and subsidiaries including POPI, is targeting a net income of P40 billion by 2020 by steadily expanding in Mega Manila, Calabarzon and Central Luzon which account for 62 percent of the country’s gross domestic product. – Iris Gonzales